"I think having a defensive coach for the first time in my career is going to help,'' Stoudemire said after practice in Greenburgh on Wednesday. "I've never been taught defense in my whole career. So to now have a coach who actually teaches defense and teaches strategies and knows positioning and posture and how to guard different plays, it's going to be helpful.''

Stoudemire vowed to improve his defense in his new bench capacity.

"I'm taking it as a challenge,'' he said. "I'm going to accept the challenge. And I'm going to try to improve as a player."

“I think it’s great,” D’Antoni said Thursday after the Los Angeles Lakers’ practice. “I think it’s great that he’s listening. He might have forgotten that Mike Woodson was also running the defense the last year I was there, so I don’t know if he just didn’t pick that year to listen.

Spoiler alert .....Amare does not play any defense...nor much else if it requires thought. Anyone who watched him in Phoenix knows that. Nash would run pick and roll with him or dribble down side and hit Amare rolling from top of key to rim with perfect bounce pass or hit him in stride... He has awful hands but great athletic ability... Once that explosive quickness and leaping goes , so does the contract value... He is the new Rashard Lewis with a Dwight Howard persona